


Treasures of the Study

by Blue_Lacquer



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Disability, Gen, Mother-Daughter Relationship, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-16
Updated: 2015-04-16
Packaged: 2018-03-23 06:58:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 931
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3758743
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Blue_Lacquer/pseuds/Blue_Lacquer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Poppy teaches Toph about the Four Treasures of the Study.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Treasures of the Study

**Author's Note:**

> Originally published on livejournal.

Poppy had just finished preparing her last letter for mailing when she heard footsteps outside the study door. Turning her head, she saw her daughter standing in the hallway, alone.

"Toph," she called. The girl turned her head toward the sound. Poppy quickly went over to her and scooped her up into a hug. "Did you get lost again, sweetheart?"

"No," came the answer. "I wanted to visit you, Mama."

Poppy glanced along the hall, but there was no sign of the nanny. She wouldn't have expected it to be so difficult to find help who could keep up with a blind five year old.

She would have a talk with the nanny later. Brushing stray strands of dark hair from her daughter's face, she said, "You shouldn't wander around alone, Toph. You could get hurt."

Toph, ignoring the warning as usual, asked, "What are you doing?"

"I've been writing a letter to your Aunt Daisy." And to other people, but Toph didn't know them.

"Aunt Daisy's in Ba Sing Se," Toph said.

"Yes, she is." Poppy smiled. She had always been pleased by how intelligent her daughter was, despite being blind. "And that's why I'm writing to her. Because she's far away and I can't talk to her in person."

"Can I write a letter too?"

Poppy's smile faded. The idea of Toph never being able to read or write pained her greatly. These days, even the poorest children in Gaoling were taught to read and write, mostly thanks to Poppy funding a new, free school for them. Her own daughter being denied the ability was a particularly cruel twist of fate.

She didn't have the heart to say that Toph couldn't ever write a letter to anyone. Someday, she would have to tell her child the sad truth, but not today.

Instead, she kissed her daughter's cheek and said, "Do you know what the Four Treasures of the Study are?" Toph may not be able to write, but she should at least know the tools required for it. Poppy didn't want her daughter to be ignorant.  
  
Toph answered, "No."

Poppy carried Toph into the study and sat down at the writing desk, settling the girl in her lap. She picked up the brush, still damp from being cleaned, and put it in her daughter's hands. "This is the ink brush. The handle is bamboo." She guided Toph's fingers along the smooth wood. "And the bristles are made from rabbit weasel hair." She brushed Toph's fingers with it, tickling, and the girl laughed.

"It smells," Toph said, sniffing the brush, "like the spice cupboard."

Poppy delicately sniffed the brush head. A faint scent clung to the bristles, barely noticeable, from the spices added to the ink to preserve it.

Toph flicked the brush across her own face, giggling, while Poppy retrieved the next item from a drawer. "This is the inkstick."

Toph set the brush in her lap so she could run her fingers over the inkstick. "What's this shape?"

"It's a lotus flower."

Her face set in concentration, Toph carefully felt all around the object. "Why don't they call it an ink _flower_?"

Poppy laughed. "Inksticks have many different shapes. Flowers, animals--sometimes even _sticks_."

Toph sniffed the ink lotus. "This doesn't' smell like the brush," she announced.

It was indeed not the same ink Poppy had used to write her letters. Glancing at her daughter curiously, she sniffed the inkstick and then the brush again, but couldn't tell the difference. She was impressed by how sharp Toph's sense of smell was.

Poppy put the brush and the stick on the desk and said, "Next is the paper." She drew out a clean sheet and laid it on the desktop, then shuffled closer so her daughter could touch it.

Toph ran her hands over the flat sheet. "It feels like dried leaves," she said. She leaned down and, as with everything else, sniffed it. She bent her fingers, crinkling the paper slightly, and then she did it again on purpose, listening to the sound. "It _sounds_ like dried leaves too."

"I think you'll like the last Treasure best," Poppy said.

She reached over to the corner of the desk and picked up the inkstone. It was shaped like a pond, complete with lily pads and a turtle duck, and, while not large, was heavy enough that she needed both hands to safely move it. The ink reservoir had been emptied by her afternoon's writing.

Toph's ears perked up at the _clunk_ of the stone being set back on the desk. Poppy guided her daughter's hands toward the object. Feeling stone, Toph smiled broadly and eagerly ran her hands over the surface. She began to pick it up.

Poppy quickly said, "Don't do that, Toph! You'll hurt yourself," and began pulling her daughter away from the stone.

Toph's fingers slipped _into_ the stone, securing her hold on it. She easily lifted the inkstone up off the desk with one hand, as though it were as light as a crumpled ball of paper.

Poppy gasped. Toph held the heavy stone casually and securely in her small hands, as though she were toting her stuffed badgermole. Residual ink stained her skin as she rolled the inkstone in her hands like wet clay. She said, grinning, "This _is_ the best one, Mama!"

They had learned Toph was an earth bender when she started walking--and leaving footprints in the marble floors. Master Yu insisted her bending was weak and that she would never do much with it.

Poppy suddenly doubted Master Yu's prediction.


End file.
